My first thought was to have Maria Sharapova make the call. What could be better than a little pillow talk with a leggy tennis star?

But given my duties as Yankees beat writer, it had to be Rodriguez. Perhaps he would tell me whether he had changed his mind again and would play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. Maybe he would apologize for his poor playoff performance. At least there might be some poker tips or a subtle jab at Derek Jeter.

Alas, it was a recorded message.

“Pete! This is Alex Rodriguez,” he shouted. “Mornings are the most valuable time of the day, and I should know. You snooze, you lose. So get up, get out and do something with your morning.”

While Nike are entitled to employ whatever tactics they wish in pursuit of 100% of the globe’s athletic footwear market, you’d think they’d stop to consider for just one second, how this will hurt Tom Candiotti.